Many universities in 3rd world countries have rules for promotion & recognition that put heavy weight on research & publication but very little weight on teaching/learning & community engagement. These rules "that are considered divine!" are obviously illogical & unfair for many reasons, e.g.

1) If there is research, then it is of low quality. This means also that publications will not be that good but there are journals which are ready to publish anything as long as money is paid.

2) Many devious games are played with respect to research & publications. It is easy for some persons to travel to other countries in order to “shop” for including his/her name in published papers while he/she does not have any knowledge about the research conducted.

I may add that there are rings of deceit which produce papers that list authors who never met or did any experiment or survey or case study. So it is a “dishonest” business.

3) The real test or value for a scholar comes from his/her duty in teaching & in community service. Some “claim’ that these are not easy to measure in order to close the gates in front of those who seek progress for their nations & humanity at large.

I have many things to say but I shall end this with a “weird” situation: I know many departments in several 3rd world countries in which assistant professors are far better “scientifically” than most of their full-professors colleagues. It is ridiculous to see a full professor who cannot teach first year students or solve problems in the general first year textbook!    

At our university, promotion and tenure is viewed as a three legged stool (Research & Publication, Teaching and Service). Each leg of the stool is considered to be important. However, research and teaching are probably weighed more heavily than service on committees. Assistant  professors seeking promotion to Associate professors are required to demonstrate excellence in two out of the three areas. Associate professors that are seeking promotion to Full Professor have to demonstrate excellence in all three areas and have an increased research/ publishing requirement. We are a Division II, Masters granting University. The mix is often different at Research Division I schools.   The old maxim of "publish or perish" is actually true.  

I agree with Nizar that there is a great burden on faculty members who wish to get promoted, however this is not the case in the 3rd world countries only, in Canada you have to have a super great portfolio to get promoted,including admin work, teaching and at least 2 publications per year plus many other activities, which puts a lot of stress on faculty members and here is a link showing the criteria needed form promotions in Canadian universities 

https://www2.viu.ca/integratedplanning/documents/OverviewofTPPoliciesinCanada.pdf

Ben is right at what we call R-I universities in the United States (i.e. University of Missouri, University of Kansas, University of Illinois, etc). Ben, does your university require a book by a faculty member seeking tenure or are their publications limited to referred journal articles?

Ben, It is pretty much the same here. I teach criminal justice. Both count in that discipline. However, the older more traditional professors want to see you book to take you seriously. The younger ones poo poo that idea and stick to referred articles. I do both and get on with it.

I agree with all that has been said. Because universities and colleges have different policies, it certainly depends on the university or the college. Some institutions place more weight on research, others seem to place more weight on teaching or service.

I agree with Nizar that teaching and community service contribute more to human development than publication and research. The major problem with our universities in the third-world countries is that there is no efficient system in place to measure teaching and community service as a yardstick for promotion, thus the need to rely more on research and publication which can be easily graded. Moreover, most of the individuals manning the promotion exercise and the staff desiring promotion know little on what is community service.

The optimum weight is in giving lectures, doing scientific research, and serving the community